UNDER A STAR CALLED SUN
UNDER A STAR CALLED SUN
👩🚀 🌏 🌟
a sci-fi bitsy game about grieving, holding on to fading memories, and carrying the world on your shoulders, made for LIMINAL magazine's GLITCH series, released in June 2020 as part of the Emerging Writers' Festival.
use wasd or arrow keys to move and interact
content warning: allusions to grief, death
click on the title screen at the beginning if it’s unresponsive at first
soundtrack: Elegy For A Cosmonaut, made in beepbox.co
💫 🛰 🌌
for Ruslan
bitsy hacks and tools used
- bitsy hacks
- avatar by room (v1.1.10) by Sean S. LeBlanc
- dialog choices (v4.0.1) by Sean S. LeBlanc
- directional avatar (v2.0.1) by Sean S. LeBlanc
- exit-from-dialog (v8.0.1) by @mildmojo
- transparent sprites (v4.0.6) by Sean S. LeBlanc
- tools
- add bitsy audio by candle
- pixsy by ruin
[made in bitsy v7.0]
Development log
Comments
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Very good
amazing!!
this is really beautiful, and it feels especially meaningful to me since the person i'm in love with is named Atlas
Like, y'know, this is the *good* kind of sadness, conveyed through words.
Not angst or distilled gut punches, just like friends sharing a piece of morbidly wet cheese (wait, why cheese?)
Heh.
its beautiful. amazing how it conveys so much with the simpliest and pretty artstyle. The song is so good too. Im really impressed, congratulations and thank you for making such a profound little game
As someone who enjoys isolation (or I tell myself I do), as someone who tends to take their friends for granted, as someone who never seems to be content where I am... I am crying. Amazing, beautiful.
Cried tears while realization kicked in. What a beautiful soul the creator must be to creat something so painfully touching and real.
I have not truly experienced profound grief. At least, I think so.
But I fear it. I fear it because I forget to remember others as they are, and were. This hit me in a part of me I hadn't realized was quite so fragile. Thank you.
words can never capture this. if beautiful was a word used less often, it would fit. awe?
I don't know if I commented here before, I don't know if it matters.
You've got talent. Keep holding the earth for me, maybe I'll be strong enough to take it for you one day.
Absolutely gorgeous game, manages to convey a beautiful message with graphical simplicity. Soundtrack is very touching too. Thank you for this.
why am I about to cry
Reminded me of my grandfather. We lost him just before the Covid outbreak and only in isolation did I realize I really didn't know much about him. All I know of him are retold stories now. I could've asked him more questions.
Thank you for making this.
very relatable, I hope you find better days
lost my mom a year ago. thank you for making this. it helped <3
i cried
lovely but so so sad. My dad is sick and I constantly remind myself to make sure you're making memories with him now to remember later, because you'll have time to grieve but you'll never have time to get him back. Thank you for this.
hey (sorry i really should have written this 2 years ago when i first played it) but i just wanted to say thank you for creating this, the game means a lot to me (i tend to become a bit embarrassingly earnest when i write) so just thank you, genuinely.
(also it was nice seeing stuff i recognised (mainly the number 19 tram))
thank you! long live the 19 tram, frustratingly slow during peak traffic but still iconic
It's just amazing. I really connected with it; I'm all tears now.
So good, thank you!
Thank you for this, lost my dad and my best friend (7 & 4 years ago respectively), and I've never grieved so hard in the past ~3 years — it was therapeutic, it opened wounds I thought healed, memories I thought had vanished, and it resonated so well with all the memory distortions I struggle with.
Would I be who I am today if they were both alive? I'll never know, but this was comforting in some way, thank you
Reminded me of someone dear that I lost to COVID. This made me tear up, absolutely incredible.
This was amazing!!
just cried like a baby. beautiful work
Yeah I teared up, too. Amazing little project.
5 stars are good, but not quite enough.
This is beautiful
This brought a tear to my eye. Its deeply inspiring and thank you.
shed a tear.. its so good :(
Made me cry :')
Beautiful game
one like equal one cry
Beautiful game. Shows the power of Bitsy’s minimalist graphics so clearly.
I dont know English much.. But i cryed.
Oh Atlas
Holds up the filament
One day at a time.
English is not my mother language but still i really want to leave this comment as the game is just too beautiful and makes me cry.. I lost my father last year.. This game really hits me... the atmosphere the game creates is just sooo realistic,it's like you're still doing the same thing day to day, seems like nothing in your life changes, and everything just moving on.... But yet everything changes. You still have that kind of call back, although the memories are fading.... and you have no one to blame for. But just like the game said, one day we'll meet again, then you can kiss them again... I still think of him, the pain seems never fade, i still have his photo at my bedside, i clean the dust for it and talk to it.... I still dream of him, tell him again and again i love him... And yes, i'm always looking forward to the very end, when i can finally see him again.
Hand in there, pal, it gets better. They will always live in your memory and your heart. I lost my dad 21 years ago
Thanks! And i also hope your life gets better and better, now and in the future
Honestly I was just looking to see what kinds of games could be made with Bitsy, I wasn’t expecting to have my heart fully wrenched from its home in my chest. This is a positively beautiful story that deserves to be shared more
I'm new to interactive fiction and itchio. This is the first in-fic I came across and holy hell this was beautiful. It brought so many memories buried deep in my heart, and it's seriously inspiring.
This brought a few tears to my eyes. Well done, and thank you.
Thank you so much Cecile Richard for this experience. I'm gonna say it, this is one of the best games I've ever played in my life.
This hit me harder than I thought.